Nurses Protesting Hospital Lockout Lose Round Before NLRB

The National Labor Relations Board has dismissed an unfair labor action charge filed last month by a local nurses union whose members were twice locked out after two single-day strikes at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center.

Union leaders say they will appeal the ruling.

In a letter sent last week to the hospital’s managers and the union, NLRB Regional Director James J. McDermott stated: “There is insufficient evidence of a violation of the [National Labor Relations] Act.”

The 330-member union, American Federation of Nurses, Service Employees International Union Local 535, staged one-day strikes Sept. 15 and Oct. 23 to protest staffing levels and wages. After each strike, the hospital locked nurses out for two days while managers staffed the hospital with replacement nurses.

Hospital managers said the lockouts were necessary because the replacement worker company, U. S. Nursing, requires a minimum 48-hour commitment from clients.

Union leaders said management of the hospital--owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp.--used the lockouts to punish striking nurses and filed unfair labor practice grievances in both instances.

McDermott threw out the first unfair labor practice charge and another is pending. That complaint states that management discriminated against the union by locking out strikers while allowing nurses who did not strike back to work.

In his dismissal of the first complaint, McDermott supported management’s position.

“The union was put on notice by the employer, prior to the inception of the strike, that the employer was committed to providing the temporary replacement employees a 48-hour work guarantee, and as a result the strikers would not be permitted to work unless needed,” he wrote.

In a prepared statement, Dale Surowitz, chief executive officer for Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, said he was “gratified that the NLRB, Region 31 did not support the union’s position on this issue.”

“I hope the NLRB’s decision will help the union realize that no one wins in a strike,” he said.

Bob McCloskey, an organizer with Local 535, said the ruling puts corporate interests above the welfare of workers. He said he feared that dismissal of the charge would have a “chilling effect on people’s right to strike.”

The labor dispute is unresolved.